What is the point of "mindset" in self-protection training?

Your SURVIVAL.

Having the properly calibrated mindset guides how you train and what you practice to stay safe:

1. A denial mindset - avoiding all training because it only happens to others.
2. A techniques mindset - relies on martial arts, sport fighting classes, and/or a firearm for those who Carry.
3. The Survivor Mindset:
   • Accepts the uncomfortable realities of using violence to stay safe.  
   • Training is focused on attacking physiology and creating an injury.
   • Preparing to shift from a "prey-to-predator" mindset for surviving a threat.
   • Practices how to survive the initial ambush
   • Never submits when a weapon is presented (unless just want "stuff").  We feign compliance to disguise our attack.  
   • Accepts that conflict is "fluid." Plug-in-play solutions or techniques are unrealistic in the context of survival.
   • Adopts Principles and Concepts over a style or technique. 
   • Ingrains practiced responses to subconscious mastery (no "thinking" required) to follow our survival reflexes and physiology.   
   • Commitment to the threat response doctrine:  Co.D.S.A. - Comply, Distract, Surprise to Attack and press.
   • Lives according to the only guarantee in self-defense:  Don't Be There when it happens.
   • Never Submit.  You're doomed if you do, so don't.

Know Your Mindset

Why is Mental Preparedness so important?

The ability to remain composed and not overwhelmed by fear/panic is the most under-trained element of personal protection training.   It comes first but is trained the least.

Mental composure is a prerequisite for deploying physical responses and escaping a threat to our safety.

Do you remember the Incredible Hulk tv show?  David Banner would have his shirt explode open and pants burst into "capris" as he would morph into the powerful Incredible Hulk to seek justice. That is the survival mindset switch, Hollywood style.  He was a well-mannered guy until it was time to not be.

Why does this work?

♦  Bad guys share the same hard-wired reflexive responses to an attack that we do. They have the same startle response patterns.

As an example, when you get poked in the eye, we all respond the same way. Including the bad guy.   The head launches itself away and the hands come up to the eyes. The eyes water and vision will blur.   You can't help it and neither can he.

♦  Attackers are not planning to deal with defending themselves. They bring tools or friends to do the "heavy lifting" for them.

The attacker's survival system will control their movements for a brief time if you are able to get them off "script", on the defensive, or can create an injury.  

The goal is "buying" the time needed to safely escape.

When a tool is presented by a threat, your compliance, panic, or freezing are the expected responses.   Criminals with other intentions would have already shot/stabbed/harmed you.

When a tool does not give an attacker the power or control they expected, you have psychologically taken away power from the tool. 

That is NOT what the attacker expected.  

By causing this disruption in the "script", it gives you valuable time to figure out your escape plan or how you are going to destroy him with the tool he presented.

To become a competent protector, practice and train to view tools for what they are, tools.

♦  Have you ever tried "attacking" while falling backward or being off balance?

It does not work.  

It doesn't work the for the bad guy either.  

Maintaining your emotional, mental and physical Balance is paramount for surviving a threat to your safety.

The takeaway - Tools are not irrelevant, but they do not possess mystical power or work as a cure-all in a survival situation.  We should be training this way to avoid remaining "frozen" when confronted by one.  Mindset includes a basic understanding of your own physiology and reflex arcs.  This allows you to create Conditioned Responses that work with your innate defenses and reflexes and helps you to safety more quickly.